(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brassiere, the blank for making the brassiere, and to the methods for making the brassiere and the blank. More particularly, this invention relates to the production of a brassiere blank on a circular knitting machine having integrally knit breast cups and support panels for lifting, shaping, and separating the cups, and the production of such brassieres using only a minimal number of manufacturing steps.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Brassieres having fabric areas to define breast cups have been produced by full fashioned and reciprocating knitting machines, but their production tends to be slow and inefficient unless circular knitting is used.
One circular knitting process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,525 to Richards which discloses a brassiere blank made on a circular knitting machine. The process includes producing a tubular blank having a torso portion with a pair of breast cups, straps knit integrally with the torso portion, and turned welt portions at each end of the tubular blank. The tubular blank is slit on one side and laid flat for cutting neck and arm openings and is then seamed at each side to form the brassiere. The breast cup fullness of the brassiere is provided by way of a gathered panels located between the cups and along the brassiere side panels. The cup fullness provided by this method, however, is necessarily limited and may not provide enough fullness for fuller figured women. Further, due to the ability of knitted fabrics (such that used in the Richards patent) to stretch, such brassieres may fail to provide an adequate level of support for larger chested wearers.
Attempts have been made on nether-type knitted undergarments to provide variations in the compression provided by the undergarment in areas corresponding to particular areas of a wearer's body. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,999 to Lawson et al. describes the provision of a fabric portion having a medium amount of compressive force between a highly compressive upper waist or leg portion and a low compression body portion, in order to ease the transition from the highly compressive portion to the low compression portion and reduce the resultant body bulge which can be caused by that transition. The areas providing the medium amount of compressive force are shaped and located so that they extend circumferentially about the waist or leg of the wearer in the manner of a band, and they are formed by changing the yarn used to knit various courses.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,824 to Kuney discloses knitted garments which include form-fitting pockets in order that they can accentuate specific portions of the body. The garments are knitted using a constant knit structure, with the stitch length being varied in selected areas to form spaced concave areas which are designed to correspond to specific regions of the wearer's body. In the illustrated embodiments, the nether garments include loosely knit regions corresponding to the buttock cheeks and a tightly knit seam piece extending vertically between the loosely knit regions. Though mentioning broudly that the structure could be used with brassieres, the Kuney patent does not disclose how the structure can be used with a brassiere. Further, the stitch structure is not modified; rather the stitch length is adjusted in specific areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 3.425,246 to Knohl discloses a knitted brassiere having extra courses of elastic yarn knitted into the breast cups to shape the cups. Such brassieres, however, would tend to lack sufficient support for larger-chested wearers, as they fail to include supplemental support means.
Thus a need exists for a brassiere which provides an adequate amount of lift and support for the wearer and which may be readily manufactured using only a minimal number of manufacturing steps. In addition, a need exists for a method and blank for making such a brassiere.